Ever since I was little, I’ve known about Afternoon Tea through books and tv shows. I know now that historically, there was more to tea time than the fancy parties depicted in fiction. But to a young girl, images of getting dressed up to sip tea and nibble on scones with clotted cream were fascinating. By the way, my Scottish friend insists that the proper pronunciation of scone is “skon”, like the word gone.
I love tea. I’m not a tea snob, but I do enjoy collecting various teas and trying out unusual blends. My experience with tea is mostly limited to having it with dim sum, drinking bubble tea and spitting large tapioca balls at friends, and having it hot or iced in the comfort of my own home.
I’ve read about various places in the area that offer the Afternoon Tea experience, but I only recently got to try it myself. I went to Serenity Tearoom with a few girl friends over the weekend. Obviously, this is just my one experience at this one tearoom, but if you are interested in Afternoon Tea, this should give you an idea of what to expect.
The establishment was located in the hustle and bustle of downtown, but once inside, the atmosphere was relaxed, and as the name implies, serene. There were several groups seated, and there was chatter and laughter, but it wasn’t terribly noisy. Except for our table. We were the rough and rowdy country peons posing as sophisticated and genteel ladies. Good thing we were seated in an area that was away from most of the other guests.
Our server was friendly and knowledgeable, and she didn’t seem the least bit put off by our silliness. She probably had a laugh with the other staff about how ridiculous and goofy we were.
Serenity Tearoom offers 70 different teas, and you can also buy the teas at their retail shop. We each selected a tea to try, and we had the choice of having it hot or iced. We had our own pots of tea, and once a pot was finished, a different tea could be selected. This was extremely exciting to us. We had high ambitions of trying an entire page of the tea menu, but alas, our stomachs and bladders failed us. We only managed to suck down eight pots of tea. Not too shabby, but we’ll have to do better next time.
Our first round of tea from top left clockwise: vanilla rooibos, jasmine tea, caramel black tea, and Serenity’s herbal blend (mango, strawberry, and kiwi)
We picked the most basic tea option, which as you can see in the pictures, was still a fancy and substantial spread. We were all pretty hungry when we arrived, but we left absolutely stuffed, and with leftovers. Those endless pots of tea really got us good. The menu also had two other options that included additional food items, and an a la carte menu.
Once we got our tea, we were served our beautifully presented sweet and savory treats. Everything was tasty. I was especially impressed with the scones. The only scones I’ve had were the pre-made boxed ones from the grocery store, which were more like hard and dry albeit tasty cookies. These freshly made scones were crusty on the outside and fluffy and warm on the inside. I wasn’t a big fan of the cucumber sandwiches. The cucumbers were tossed in a vinaigrette, so they were a little tart. I like cucumber salad, just not in between pieces of bread.
Top tier: chocolate covered strawberries, fruit tarts with passion fruit cream, fruit tarts with regular cream, and snickerdoodles. Middle tier: apple cinnamon scones, golden raisin scones, and cranberry bread. Bottom tier: warm feta cheese tarts, egg salad with chive sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, and chicken salad puff pastry squares
Ham, bacon, tomato, and arugula sandwiches
Since there were four of us, we strategized before ordering, and each selected a different flavor curd and jam. That way we could sample everything.
Clotted cream surrounded by lemon curd, key lime curd, passion fruit curd, apple cinnamon curd, and mixed fruit jam
Here is my fancy set up. In reality, once the photo was taken, there was a lot of grabbing, crumbs on cheeks, sticky fingers, and ravenous chewing sounds involved… and numerous trips to the bathroom.
All in all, it was a really pleasant afternoon. If you are daunted by the idea that tea time is for stuffy, stuck up people…well we had a blast. If any other guests thought we weren’t fitting into the tea time image, we sure as hell didn’t notice or care.
We also learned an important lesson. There were supposed to be five of us, but one of our friends could not make it. We did not call the restaurant beforehand, and turns out they have a 48 hour cancellation policy. We had to pay for the 5th person, and either pack up that food share, or eat it there. We decided to eat it there, but even without the extra food, we would have been quite full. Towards the end, we were all doing the “you eat that, I already ate this” before packing up the rest of the food.
